Bribie Island Tri - JP Fitness Forums

emartin10 · 11-24-2005, 03:55 PM

I have my second triathlon coming up in about 2 weeks, the Bribie Island Triathlon in Brisbane Australia. It looks like a pretty cool tri, pretty short (1k/28k/8k), but it should be amazing. It's the Short Course National Championship, so there are going to be some very elite racers, which I am really excited to see and race with.

We are swimming through the canals of one of the downtown area on the island, which are known to have sharks in them. But worry not, the race organizers promise to have that under control

Could you imagine being a race coordinator and having to deal with a shark problem. Ugh!!

Anyway, wish me luck. I bought a pile for a bike, so here's to hoping it makes it 28k. Riding here is very challenging. I got hit by a car on my 2nd ride on my bike, and had to replace both rims (cost more to do that than I paid for the bike!). So it's a very ghetto rig, but it should work. I'll post a pic of the beaut.

TennesseeGentleman · 11-24-2005, 08:23 PM

May luck and peace be with you.

ODB · 11-25-2005, 05:53 AM

Hey E! Let's see a photo of that new beater!

The trick with having sharks in the race is not being faster than the shark, just faster than some of the other competitors.

Joe

emartin10 · 11-25-2005, 05:49 PM

Joe - luckily swimming is my best leg, so I should be in and out of the water in no time. And I'm gunna watch Jaws the night before, if nothing more than to just scare me into a better time. I'll need it for the bike leg!

ODBSGIRL · 11-26-2005, 08:20 AM

E I want to see PICTURES! Hope you're faster than a few meaty people, keep those sharkies at bay.

Marykaa · 11-29-2005, 06:24 AM

EMARTIN good luck! may the sharks not be with you. [img]smile.gif[/img]

emartin10 · 12-05-2005, 09:56 PM

So - yeah. It was an interesting race and was definitely a learning experience. We don't have times up yet, so I'll post those when I get them, but I can give a pretty good run down for now.

I had probably the best swim of my life. It was 1000m in a canal, which isn't too far. I started in the last heat, and finished with the 2nd of 5 heats (the ladies), so I had a really good swim. I beat all of the elite guys in my age group, so I'm happy for that. The water was warm too, so I just got into a zone and hauled ass. I also knew the bike would be weak (due to the fact that I was riding the equivalent of a Big Wheels), so I pushed hard in the water.

Ah the bike. So for those who haven't read about my journies in Aus, I had to buy an older bike. It was in great shape, and I promptly got smoked by an old guy not paying attention while driving. So the bike was really pretty beat up, but I've learned a lot of bike maintainence in the process (I'm on a budget, and the guy took off upon hitting me, so no help from him). Anyway, I was rather worried that my fork was going to just snap, that either rim would crack, or I would flat (I had my spare kit duct taped on my cross bar

), so I didn't ride very hard. I jumped on the bike, and realized my front tire was rubbing the brake, so I jumped off, and realized there was nothing I could do since it was rubbing the top (the fork was a lot more warped than I imagined). Soooo, I basically just rode like a grandma, and finished 2nd to last on the bike. I passed the last place guy coming into transition since was was walking his bike in due to a flat. It was a gut check though, being on the last lap and not having a single rider in front or behind me. I had a few chances to cut it short and basically cheat myself to a better time, but I stayed honest and am proud of myself for doing so.

So into the run, I was pissed. I passed about 15 people right off the bat, and promptly cramped up in the calves (it was about 95 degrees, so I'm chalking that up to some dehydration). I sucked it up and ran through the cramps, which lasted about 1km. After that, I just settled in, dumped about 6 gallons of water on my head to cool me off, and finished strong (but still roughly 10 or 15 minutes slower than I had wanted to).

My GF was fantastic, and had the car ready to go within a few minutes of me finishing, and had my food cooler ready to rock with the AC blasting. I was rather embarassed, so I didn't stay in the 90+ degree heat to see everyone else get their trophies. I know I was being a sour puss, but I don't regret sitting in the AC one bit

.

I'm glad I did the race, like I said, it was a learning experience, and now I know where I need to work to improve for the next race here (or for the spring at home). Times will come shortly...

E

ODB · 12-05-2005, 11:18 PM

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a good race that got thrown off by a bad bike. Hang in there dude, imagine how tough you'll be when you get back home to your real bike?

P.S. I know about running through that cramping at the start of the run. Tough stuff!

emartin10 · 12-06-2005, 03:23 PM

Yeah Joe, all I could think about was my bike at home. How I'm going to take her straight in for a tune up and buy her aero bars and new rims and new tires. And then ride until I can't move my legs any more. (A job might help, eh?) Ah, I miss my bike

My calves are still hurting 2 days later. I've been massaging them and stretching (lightly). I'm going to run today, see if I can't loosen it up a bit more, they felt better getting out of bed today. It's all in good fun though!

emartin10 · 12-07-2005, 10:15 PM

Okay, times are in. I don't think I mentioned how amazing the Aussies are at triathlon. It's following here is similar to that of golf or NASCAR in the states, and regularly has a half page of the newspaper each day. So the reason I say this, is that even amatuer triathletes here could whip most of our pro triathlete's asses. They all surely whipped mine!

Sooo, my overall time of 1:51 was about what I thought I'd do, but on the slow side thanks to my bike. I swam 1km in 13:39 - 5th place in my age group. The guy that won my AG finished it in 9 minutes. Unreal. That time was still only about middle of the pack overall (121/260).

Bike. Ugh. 59:50 for just under 18 miles. Not good. I was 256/260 - so not good at all.

Run was 37:44 for 5 miles, so I'm happy with that. 157/260 - middle of the pack.

So with a decent bike - I think I would have finished in the middle to back middle of the field, which I am happy with. Like I said to Joe, I'm really excited to get home to my bike and work on her and ride like the wind. Anyway, that's it.

E

ODB · 12-07-2005, 10:37 PM

I so envy you for being able to do one down under. Nice run particularly since you were cramping up for part of it. Do you have a link?

emartin10 · 12-08-2005, 03:30 PM

Link for pics? I can get the link up for the results as well.

ODB · 12-08-2005, 03:39 PM

emartin10 · 12-18-2005, 07:25 PM

Alrighty - here is a link to the results:

http://www.theruninn.com.au/downloads/bribieRace2.htm

Scroll way to the bottom, I'm Eric Martin. I ended up 7th in my AG for the swim, not 5th. They mixed up some results the day of posting the times, but 7th ain't half bad...

Here are the pics The second picture isn't me, not sure who the hell it is, but he has a cool haircut

Enjoy!

E